"They want to intimidate us before the elections"

Searches are held in the office and apartments of employees of the Voice Association, the organization of the police intends to appeal

On Tuesday in Moscow apartments, several employees of the Association in defense of voters' rights "Voice" were searches. The co -chairman of the organization Grigory Melkonian, the coordinator of the projects of Roman Ventut and the executive director of the Voice Tatyana Troinova seized all the equipment - computers, mobile phones, information carriers. On the afternoon, on Tuesday, searches continued in the office of the Voice itself. The organization has already stated that it was appealed by such actions of law enforcement agencies.

Investigative actions are carried out by employees of the Samara Ministry of Internal Affairs as part of the case , excited against the head of the organization "Voice. Volga region" Lyudmila Kuzmina. This was reported by Radio Liberty by the organization’s lawyer Olga Gnezdilova. The Voice believes that the whole case is fabricated, the main goal of the authorities is to terminate the activities of an independent organization that monitors the election in Russia and regularly reports numerous falsifications and violations. The following elections in Russia will be held in September this year.

Investigators literally broke into the employees of the Voice early in the morning:

Roman Udot after completing a search in his apartment

According to the lawyer Olga Gnezdilova , the investigator, who led the search with Grigory Melkonian, was armed, and she was not allowed to communicate with colleagues:

We believe that this is due to the upcoming elections

- They came to Grigory Melkonian at 6.45, hacked the doors, the search was held by court order, which was held in Samara back in May. This is a matter allegedly related to the case of "Voice. Volga region." All equipment was removed from the house: a home stationary computer, laptop, phone, all flash drives, disks, even film cassettes. We believe that, most likely, this is due to the upcoming elections. During the search, the investigators did not appear, they pushed me out the door by force, they didn’t let me talk to me when he needed to get a legal advice. The investigator was armed, there were operational employees with him, as well as witnesses who were familiar with the investigator and came with him. We will appeal everything, ”Olga Gnezdilova explained.

The case against the head of the organization Voice. Volga region was initiated in February this year, then a search was carried out in her apartment. Lawyers filed a motion to close the case, which, on two grounds, falls under an amnesty. But the Ministry of Internal Affairs decided not to stop him. In March 2015, the property of Kuzmina was arrested-a 12-year-old car and an apartment of 37 square meters. Lyudmila Kuzmina is sure that the searches of her Moscow colleagues are associated with the desire of the authorities to intimidate independent observers on the eve of the September elections:

-The purpose of all this is not a criminal case and not taxes, because if there was something there, they would have had a trial about it and arranged a court. This is due to large -scale elections that are planned in September 2015. It is absolutely obvious that we do not stop our observation of the elections, despite the fact that we have no money. And these matters and searches are conscious intimidation before the elected campaign in order to block all the opportunity to observe, because they take all the equipment.

State bodies became brigades of intimidation like oprichnina

And in general, it is very difficult humanly when you took everything from you and you live in the arrested property. The worst thing is that the state bodies have become repressive intimidation brigades like the oprichnina, and this can affect any citizen, ”says Lyudmila Kuzmina.

The tax audit, as a result of which they opened the case against Kuzmina, began in April 2013 and lasted more than a year. Observers in 15 regions were interrogated, where the Voilzhier worked in the 2011-2012 elections. Voosa employees then worked with donations from the US agency for international development (USAID), which, as lawyers believe, cannot be taxed by law. The head of the Voice Association Grigory Melkonets , who is called on the interrogation to the Investigative Committee of Russia on Wednesday, is going to continue to observe the Russian elections:

We are doing useful business. And in power the task is to "roll up" observers on asphalt before a single voting day

- The case, which is investigated in Samara, suffered Fiasco. They accuse the Voice. The Volga region of the fact that the fund allegedly did not pay income tax from the money that it received from the Moscow organization, which, in turn, once received money from USAID. Since this is money from USAID, this cannot be considered a donation, so pay taxes. But the fact is that the Moscow “Voice” under the pressure of the tax inspectorate paid all conceivable and unthinkable taxes from these amounts, and the tax inspectorate wants to tax this money a second time. This case fell apart because the statute of limitations expired. Lawyers have filed aircraft many times that this case was closed, but investigators are still pulling. And today they use this business to put pressure on the “voice” and try to slow down our work to prepare for a single vote day in September.

-Do you have any plan B? So they seized all the equipment from you, even took mobile phones. What will you do next?

- Then we will do what we did, we will continue to work. Someone has already promised to give me my used laptop, I will work on the laptop that I will have, with the phone that I will also have soon. With the help of people, we will somehow compensate for the losses and continue to work. No one believes that the "voice" was able to survive at such a pressure. As we can, resist this sulfuric acid that surrounds us. We are doing useful things because we are sure that we work in the interests of Russian citizens. And in power, the task is to “roll up” observers on the asphalt before a single voting day, ”Grigory Melkonian is sure.

Meanwhile, on the eve of the Voice Association, she informed about the first message about violations in the upcoming elections, which came on an interactive "map of election violations."

Leading Russian human rights activists, members ofthe Russian human rights Council , distributed a statement today in connection with what was happening:

"Our human rights activists from the organization of the protection of the rights of voters of the Voice movement are going on searches. They are conducted deliberately in a barbaric way - at 7 in the morning, under the pretext of water leaks, they burst into the apartment to the Executive Director of the Voice of the organization Grigory Melkonian. Then the searches are held with the Executive Director of the Voita Troinova Interregional Social Fund and the member of the Vohot Roman. The searches began in the Moscow office of the organization.

The preposition for searches is a case of tax evasion of one of the members of the organization in Samara. The case must be terminated according to the amnesty, but is used to provide pressure. Searches are removing with computers and documentation. They clearly pursue the goal of disrupting the compilation of a new “map of violations” before the tour of regional elections, in which representatives of the democratic coalition participate.

Since 2011, the Voice organization has caused the anger of the authorities who could not forgive it to expose egregious violations in the Duma elections.

We regard the shares against the “voice” as the desire to hide the preparing large -scale falsifications, the example of which was the “bloody elections” in Balashikha.

We express our solidarity with our persecuted colleagues. We are convinced that persecution of the “voice” is of a distinctly politicized character.

These events cannot be explained in any way other than the preparation of the authorities for violations of the rights of voters and opposition electoral associations and candidates. "

The statement was signed by Lyudmila Alekseev, Valery Borschev, Yuri Vdovin, Svetlana Gannushkin, Sergey Kovalev, Lev Ponomarev and Lilia Shibanova.